Network, affinity-interest-group commerce method

ABSTRACT

An electronic, vetted-entrepreneurship-enhancement commerce method implementable by common-affinity-interest network-communicant parties employing the structure of an electronic communication network to engage in affinity subject matter financial transactions, in association with a network-connected, limited-access, and specifically an entrepreneurially-vetted-network-communicant authorized-access-only, digital-data catalogue of commercially-transactable affinity-interest-associated goods-and-services (subject matter) deliverables that are represented by electronically transformed data stored in the catalogue. The method includes (1), in relation to intended catalogue-financial-transactional-access limiting, specifically basing financial transactional access to catalogue deliverables focusedly on vetted-network-communicant, financial-transactional-promotional entrepreneurship, and (2), limiting such access to the catalogue to (a) only an entrepreneurially vetted, entrepreneurially-talented network-communicant party, and (b) another party to whom such access is furnished specifically, and only, by such a vetted party.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation from copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/387,084, filed Apr. 27, 2009, for “Network Affinity-Group Commerce Method Involving System-Management Fulfillment”, which is a continuation from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/174,023, filed Jul. 1, 2005, for “Peer-to-Peer Affinity-Group Commerce Method and System”, which application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. Nos. 60/585,491, filed Jul. 2, 2004, for “P2P Information-Exchange, Collateral-Transaction-Promoting, Business Method”, and 60/585,492, filed Jul. 2, 2004, for “Peer-to-Peer Affinity-Group Communication Commerce Method and System”. The entireties of the disclosure contents of each of these applications are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention pertains to the field of communication-network commerce, e.g., Internet commerce, and in particular to a methodology for enhancing the operative, transactional flow of such commerce through implementing a unique, commercial-promotional practice, described hereinbelow, involving, as will be fully explained, vetted-entrepreneurship financial-transactional access control respecting commercial access (entrée) to what are called affinity-interest deliverables “contained”, and represented electronically transformably, in a network-accessible, but limited access, catalogue to which only an entrepreneurially vetted, affinity-interest party can furnish financial-transactional entrée.

INTRODUCTORY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This methodology, while seated in the generally well-known realm of otherwise conventional network commerce, functions, according to the invention, in notably uncharted territory in this realm through implementing, in the setting of a defined affinity-interest group—any such group—of network-communicant member peers (also referred to herein as parties), unique, “entrepreneurially-gate-controlled” (i.e., entrepreneurially-gated-access) entrée to a special limited-access electronic catalogue of affinity-interest goods and services (also called, interchangeably, affinity-interest subject matter, or simply affinity subject matter) that are relevant to such a group, for permitting affinity group members, when given catalogue access, to engage, selectively, in a wide variety of income-generating, affinity-group-member financial transactions involving goods and services—e.g., sales, licenses for temporary affinity-subject-matter uses, and other sanctioned grants of temporary uses, such as borrowing grants, as well as various other kinds of commercial transactions—involving members in that group. How, and with what operational content, this innovative practice in the stated field (a) rests on special, entrepreneurially promoted, financial-transaction features, and (b) plays out transactionally within an affinity group, are set forth in detail below.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Many facets of this multi-complexioned invention have been described in the various and several underlying provisional and non-provisional patent applications identified above, and the present invention-disclosure specification, tied to the original provisional-case content, draws freely, extensively, and freshly expressively, upon a number of these earlier-presented facets in support of the invention complexion (a) focused upon in the present specification, and (b) as characterized in the below-appended claims.

In relation to its aim of enhancing network commerce, commercial practice of the present invention occurs focusedly, and inter alia, through the incentivized promotion of high-bandwidth, communication-network commercial interactions (i.e., financial transactions) specifically, and specially entrepreneurially controllably, taking place with respect to what is called, as noted above, affinity-interest goods-and-services subject matter, and in particular, within a defined affinity-interest group (or affinity group) of network-communicant parties (members), referred to herein alternatively (as above), and as will be explained below, as member “peers” within the relevant affinity group. Such commercial interactions, in accordance with the present invention, are ones that take place regarding members within an affinity group.

As will become apparent, in accordance with practice of the present invention, an affinity interest group effectively functions as a specially defined marketplace for various financial activities—i.e., financial transactions—centered on affinity-interest goods and services. From a generalized point of view, affinity-group-member financial transactions within an affinity group involve the purchases, or other forms of acquisitions, including temporary forms (such as temporary grants of licenses, permitted media-file streaming, or other types of temporary, sanctioned allowances like temporary affinity-subject-matter borrowings, etc.), of catalogued, affinity-interest deliverables subject matter, taking place effectively between (a) one or more group-member sourcing providers and (b) one or more group-member deliverables “acquirers”. Where an affinity group happens to include an optional group manager, such transactions may be assisted (e.g., mediated) by that manager; and, of course, all such transactions are preceded by limited-access-catalogue entrée, i.e., gated entrée, promotionally enabled by an entrepreneurially vetted member of the relevant affinity group, which member might also be an, or the, entrepreneurially vetted group member.

As will be understood from readings of the disclosure contents in the above-identified, “related-applications” background material regarding the present invention disclosure, an affinity group of network-communicant members, peers, or parties, is effectively defined, open-endedly, by persons (i.e., “legal persons” of any category—individuals, as well as business entities of any form) who/which share a particular-subject-area affinity interest, and such a group may freely include any such party possessing such an “in-common” area of interest. Accordingly, and in the specific context of the “invention complexion” which is now being addressed, and as is generally outlined above, an affinity group network-communicant membership-makeup herein includes (a) both the offerers (called sourcing providers), and potential, and actual, acquirers, of catalogue-contained affinity-interest deliverables, (b) a group member, or even plural group members, who has/have become entrepreneurially vetted to furnish gateway access to the limited-access deliverables catalogue, and (c) any optionally involved group manager (also referred to herein as a system manager)—all of these parties possessing, or sharing, the mentioned “in-common” area of affinity interest. Other specific forms of affinity-group membership makeups are of course possible, some of which find mention both hereinbelow and in predecessor-application texts.

Network-communicant members in an affinity group are, as stated above, also referred to herein as peers on account of their belonging to the same affinity group, and within that group, sharing, at least at some level, a common affinity interest—i.e., an interest which is associated with the above-mentioned affinity-interest goods-and-services subject matter.

Regarding the “affinity” terminology employed herein, the term “affinity”, as, for example, related to an “affinity group”, is chosen and used throughout this disclosure to identify a condition wherein there is (1) a particular subject area, and (2), particular, subject-area-associated goods-and-services subject matter, called “affinity-interest subject matter”, on which such a group focuses special attention. Coming generally within affinity-interest subject matter are all potentially affinity-interest-relevant, i.e., affinity-interest-associated, forms of goods and services respecting which affinity-group members may have an interest in transacting business, i.e., engaging in financial transactions, of different types. As non-exclusive illustrations of the possible varieties of inter-member financial activities, such transactions, as suggested above herein, may include sales and purchases of goods, arrangements for paid-for services, temporary affinity-subject-matter use grants—e.g., licenses, media-content streaming, and other temporary, borrowing-like arrangements—effected within the body of affinity group members regarding any category of affinity-subject-matter goods and/or services, and many others. FIG. 11 still to be mentioned and further discussed models such arrangements.

Commercial interactions, in the forms of various types of possible financial transactions (such as those above mentioned) within an affinity group, occur, and are controlled, through what has been referred to above as “gated access”, or “gateway access” to a limited-access electronic catalogue containing sourcing-provider-furnished, affinity-interest deliverables. Catalogue-contained deliverables are accessibly controlled, relative to engageable financial transactions, effectively, and solely, through (a) the entrepreneurial vetting and authorizing of at least one thereby entrepreneurially vetted network-communicant member of the relevant affinity group, who (or which) is given gateway control over the furnishing of financial-transaction access (entrée) to the associated catalogue of deliverables, and (b), incentivized entrepreneurial promotion implemented by the vetted, affinity-group communicant aimed at inspiring commercial access to the catalogue.

The invention elements described involving (1) entrepreneurial vetting, (2) limited-access cataloging, and (3) controlled catalogue-access gating implemented solely through vetted entrepreneurship promotional behavior in the hands of the important, at least one vetted affinity-group communicant member, centrally characterize what was referred to hereinabove as “uncharted territory”. Ultimately, in the practice of the present invention, and as a key feature defined within this territory, only a vetted network-communicant party possesses the authority to offer electronic catalogue access to others. Establishment of such a vetted party is done for the significant purpose of creating an only-access, financial-transactional route to the catalogue. It is thus the case, according to the invention, that it is specifically an entrepreneurially vetted party, and only such a party, who, or which, through entrepreneurial promotional activity, effectively holds the gate key to catalogue access for others.

Continuing, the enhanced, network-based, electronic-commerce and financial-transactional practice, i.e., the method, proposed and offered by the present invention, promoted within an affinity-interest group, is preferably, though not necessarily, i.e., optionally, “method-step-implemented/effected”, or simply “step-implemented/effected”, under the managerial control, and/or simply the managerial assistance or mediation, of a network-communicant party, referred to herein as a group (or system) manager who, or which, is preferably also a network-communicant member of the relevant affinity group. Such an optionally present “group manager” may also be an, or the, entrepreneurially vetted member of an affinity group.

In this vetted-entrepreneurship, controlled-deliverables-catalogue environment which is specially featured by the invention, vetted-communicant entrepreneurship sparks the basis for the intended affinity-group-marketplace financial transactional activity, and the intended, appreciable enhancement of network commerce. As outlined already, enhanced financial-transactional interactions involving affinity-group members center on the key condition of intentionally gated-access to the controlled, limited-access electronic catalogue of sourcing-provider-furnished, affinity-interest deliverables, with such gated access occurring through the entrepreneurial promotional activity undertaken by the at least one entrepreneurially vetted member of the group. Catalogue deliverables—goods and services—provided by sourcing providers for content in the controlled catalogue are typically fully owned, in terms of all held rights, by such providers who, as is conventionally the case with respect to such owners, enjoy and bear, respectively, the financial benefits and the risks of such ownership. A financial transaction may, of course, involve an appropriate plurality-assembly, or aggregation, of sourcing-provider furnished, including plural-sourcing-provider furnished, catalogued deliverables. If an optional affinity-group manager member is involved in the relevant affinity group, that manager may, if appropriate, assist in perfecting, as, for example, by mediating, the “transactional flow” of affinity-subject-matter transactions.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that, in relation to practicing the present invention, and thus to experiencing and participating in invoking its unique features in terms of employing required, network connected/connectible electronics, affinity-group network-communicant parties need only possess, or have appropriate use-access to, even a relatively simple electronic computer—tablet, laptop or desktop—or, in fact, to any one of a variety of so-called “smart” portable, handheld electronic devices such as a smart cellphone. There may, of course, be other appropriate communication devices, optical as well as electronic in nature, differing in identity from those just listed, which will function well in the practice of the invention

Illustrating now, and further discussing, more or less generally, the features of the present invention in the representative setting of the affinity world specifically of file-sharing, and recognizing that the invention possesses, as well, significant non-file-sharing character, it is well known and recognized today that the practice of peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing over a wide-area network, such as the Internet, is one of the most popular and rapidly expanding practices in history. This practice, which grows dramatically even as we now speak about it, is readily accessible and practicable, utilizing any one of a relatively widely available array of available P2P file-sharing intercommunication technologies, by essentially all in the world who have computer, or like, access to the Internet. The present invention offers, we believe, interesting, representative utility in the file-sharing world, and accordingly, we use a discussion of this world to frame especially well the network-commerce-enhancing contributions of the invention. Similar contributions, of course, and as those skilled in the art will recognize, rise to importance in many other affinity-group-subject-matter, network-commerce “worlds”.

Unfortunately, and we believe mistakenly, P2P file sharing in the representative file-sharing world has, in the last few years, come to be viewed by some as an enemy of certain commerce—particularly commerce involving provider-controlled electronically distributable media content, such as music and movie files. In this “enemy” mode of thinking, the various conflicts which have arisen between P2P file sharers, providers of communication software/technology which enables P2P file sharing, and copyright rights holders (providers) associated with such electronic media content, have centered on the issue of apparent massive copyright infringement in the form of file acquisitions and use without payments to rights holders. These conflicts have unhappily pitted certain among these parties against one another as hostile legal combatants.

Notwithstanding this landscape of “copyright contention”, the present invention, in its proposed unique methodology and systemic management approach, recognizes and proposes a paradigm shift based, in the file-sharing world, upon an awareness that the extraordinary and massive communication, computing, and data-storage and handling bandwidth which is represented by the world of P2P activity can, in fact, be tapped creatively, along with the affinity interests of P2P file sharers, as vehicles and growth engines for the promotion, expansion and impressive enlarging of many forms of subject-matter commerce, including commerce relating to the subject matter involving electronically distributable media.

By proposing a significant change in the thinking about how P2P activities, and associated software and communication technologies, can be constructively employed, and indeed how a network-accessing “financially transacting, such as a purchasing consumer”, for example, can be converted effectively to become a positive part of the distribution “machinery” of network-commerce deliverables, one can be brought to recognize that P2P interengagement activities, in all kinds of affinity-interest fields, offer an unparalleled and historically monumental opportunity for the expansion and enhancement of commerce in many, if not all, forms of, and types of sales and other financial transactions relating to, goods and services under the dominion of network-communicant, P2P-like parties. In the file-sharing and other affinity-interest worlds, it can do this quite simply through harnessing the unique and specialized behaviors and the enthusiasms of P2P parties, such as P2P electronic-media file sharers, in a kind of piggyback fashion, to link with the communication traffic most affectionately focused upon by P2P affinity-group file sharers specially permitted, managed, controlled and appropriately, ultimately fulfilled offers of sales for, or other commercial transactions involving, various goods and services. Such goods and services may reside (a) only in the field of electronic media (such as music song files), (b) only in a variety of other fields which are outside the electronic media field, and, and even (c) in a blend of fields. Accordingly, it should be understood that references made herein to a catalogue, or to catalogues, i.e., physical, digital-data catalogue(s), of deliverables are intended to convey the understanding that such deliverables may “reside” in any one of these single or blended “fields”, or in fact in any other kind of affinity-interest field, in the form of representative, or appropriately representing, electronic data which, through transformation into computer screen imagery, is viewable in and from such a catalogue. Shortly-to-be-discussed FIG. 11, a diagram which provides a generalized, overall illustration of the invention, furnishes an especially good “picture” of the any-affinity-interest-field applicability of the invention. And, as will be well understood by those skilled in the art, the catalogue electronic representations of affinity-interest deliverables, no matter what their nature, may “sit” in a widely distributed condition electronically in and throughout a network.

As an interesting illustration describing features of the present invention, a very good and representative P2P affinity group might be a group of such file sharers who have a special interest in a particular style, or genre, of music. There are, of course, many other relevant examples of affinity groups, and practice of the present invention, as has been indicated earlier herein, is not constrained just to a “music genre” group. Put another way, implementation and practice of the present invention offers special opportunities for significant expansion of network commerce, in addition to electronic media commerce, to affinity-based network financial transactions occurring in the contexts of many different other affinity-group interests covering a very wide range of subject matters.

As will become understood from a reading of the description of the invention, its practice, both in the current, and herein illustrative, high-profile world of P2P file sharers, and in the worlds of other types of affinity-interest “network consumers”, effectively causes the relevant consumer population to become part of the mechanism of deliverables-distribution, thereby overcoming, in the case of protected deliverables content, such as electronic media content, the unacceptable instinct for one singly to acquire such content without directing payment to content rights holders.

As an illustration of one form of practice of the invention—an illustration still pictured representatively in the world of media file sharing, P2P file sharers (in a group) who have an affinity interest in a particular kind of music are encouraged to become subscribers to a rights-sanctioned (copyright-liability sanctioned, or freed), such as a temporarily-granted use-licensed, P2P file sharing community for the payment of (a) modest monthly fees, and (b) modest additional fees (or selectively in some instances, as with “older” media subject matters, no fees) associated with acquisitions (downloads) of particular media song files. Such song files are additionally referred to herein as rights-associated media, with respect to which copyright owners' rights are referred to as possessor-owned relationship rights.

Particular members (or at least one member) of such a network affinity group are/is vetted for entrepreneurship talent (i.e., entrepreneurially vetted), and thereby selected to become, effectively, authorized “sales, or offering, agents” to offer various purchasable or otherwise acquirable, financially transactable goods and/or services to be made available to other members through a controlled, authorized-access-only, centralized, catalogue, or pool, of such deliverables.

These selected peer-group members who become, in effect, specially selected marketing surrogates, are encouraged, i.e., incentivized to innovate and propel their own talents and styles of financial transactions promotions, and are the only parties, i.e., entrepreneurially vetted parties, having authority in the practice of this invention to offer electronic catalogue access to others.

Lying thus centrally within the character of the present invention is the concept that it is the quality of natural, personal enthusiasm and “energy”, and entrepreneurial talent, of affinity-interest, network-communicant peers in a peer affinity group which becomes the harnessed driving force behind promoting various financial transactions respecting affinity-interest goods and services. This central feature of the invention, powerfully linked with entrepreneurial vetting of at least one affinity-group network communicant, taps the important power and potential of (a) network-communicant-driven commercial transactional promotion, (b) network-communicant-driven transactional enthusiasm, and (c) energetic, vetted-network-communicant entrepreneurship.

Springing from the above-presented invention outline, and mentioning here again FIG. 11 which provides a good overall, generalized, i.e., block/schematic) illustration of the invention, the invention may be characterized as a network, affinity-interest-group method, optionally step-effected by an optional within-group manager, for enhancing, in the employment of an electronic communication network, affinity-interest-group network commerce in the form of within-group-implemented financial transactions, this method including the steps of

(1) creating, in relation to a selected affinity-interest group formed of network communicant members having a common subject-matter affinity interest, and including, optionally, a system manager, a network-accessible, but limited-access, electronic catalogue containing, in electronic representational manners, affinity-interest goods-and-services deliverables that are associated with the group members' common affinity interest—such deliverables being selectively subject to various forms of financial transactions (like those mentioned illustratively above) involving affinity-group members, with transactional access to the created catalogue occurring only through the promotional activity of an entrepreneurially vetted affinity-group member,

(2) establishing, for the purpose of creating an only-access route to the catalogue, at least one network-communicant affinity-group member, drawn from any of the group members, characterized by possessing financial-transactional-promotional entrepreneurship talent of a nature associated with promoting financial-transactional interest regarding the catalogue-contained deliverables, to become recognized as an at least one authorized, entrepreneurially-vetted, affinity-group network-communicant party to have control over financial-transactional access to deliverables contained in the created catalogue, and

(3) limiting financial transactional access to deliverables in the catalogue to only (a) such an at least one entrepreneurially-talented vetted network-communicant party, and (b) another network-communicant-party in the group having a potential financial-transactional interest in a catalogue-contained deliverable, and solely for the purpose of such other party's considering, and if desired engaging in, a vetted-communicant-promoted financial transaction regarding a catalog-contained and offered deliverable.

From another perspective, the invention may be described as an electronic, vetted-entrepreneurship-enhancement commerce method implementable by common-affinity-interest network-communicant parties in, and employing the structure of, an electronic communication network, in operative association with an established, network-connected, financial-transactional-limited-access, and specifically entrepreneurially-vetted-network-communicant authorized-access-only, digital-data catalogue of commercially-transactable affinity-interest-associated deliverables, including goods and services, represented by electronically transformed data stored in the catalogue, this method including

(1) in relation to intended catalogue-financial-transactional-access limiting, specifically basing financial transactional access to deliverables contained in the established catalogue focusedly on vetted-network-communicant financial-transactional-promotional entrepreneurship, and

(2) limiting financial-transactional-activity access to the catalogue to (a) only an entrepreneurially vetted, entrepreneurially-talented network-communicant party, and (b) another party to whom such access is furnished specifically, and only, by such a vetted party.

These and other important features and advantages that are offered by the present invention will become more fully apparent as the detailed description which now follows below is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which, in block/schematic forms, illustrate various different ways of visualizing and explaining the invention's network-commerce-enhancing character.

In this context, while, in relation to one's reading of this detailed invention description which now follows, it should be clear that the invention, as generally discussed above respecting its important core aspects, is practiceable in a wide variety of affinity-interest realms, these core aspects we believe stand out, and present illustratively, especially well in the illustratively descriptive and focused context of so-called P2P media file sharing—a very recognizable affinity-interest subject matter. Accordingly, the below detailed elaboration of the invention focuses attention on this well-known, though specially individuated, affinity-interest arena. Those skilled in the art, we believe, will readily appreciate, from this particular-case elaboration, how many other commercially exploitable affinity-interest areas fit into the practice scheme of the invention. In this context, a limited access catalogue employed according to the present invention may, depending upon the common-interest characters of different affinity groups, “contain” all sorts of relevant, affinity-interest subject-matter deliverables that differ from media files, and that relate, of course, to whatever happens to be the special, common affinity interests of such different, particular affinity groups.

Additionally, and with respect to the above-mentioned option of including a style of invention practice involving features of system, or group, management, we illustrate and describe a representative form of the invention wherein there is an optionally involved system (or group) manager whom (or which, in the case of a business-entity manager) we treat herein as being both an affinity-group member, and potentially also an entrepreneurially vetted network-communicant. This optional group manager may, as mentioned above, assist is step-effecting the several method steps of the invention.

DESCRIPTIONS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a very high level block/schematic diagram presented in simplified form to illustrate core features of the present, network-and-computer-based invention.

FIG. 2 is a high level block/schematic diagram illustrating an important variation in implementation and practice of the invention (as illustrated in FIG. 1), wherein a common peer member, or network-consumer member, of two, different, chosen affinity-interest groups can function as an important commercial bridge, or gateway, in the practice of the present invention involving the activities of such two different network affinity groups. This figure in fact pictures what may be visualized as being an “elemental, representative region” (i.e., a region subject to extensive, incremental replication/repetition) in a massive network of the kind involving a huge plurality of widely distributed network participants, and remotely accessible computers, servers, databases, software services, etc., popularly referred to for years, in the context, at least, of the Internet, metaphorically as an Internet “cloud”. This being so, FIG. 2, as presented in the parent to the present continuation application, can be viewed as illustrating the now popular behavioral term “cloud computing”.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are block/schematic diagrams which relate to one another in illustrating a particular practice of the present invention with respect, representatively, to the world of peer affinity groups interested in electronic music files, and with respect to which industry providers of these files differentiate distributable categories of music files both through sanctioned, licensed streaming and licensed non-streaming handling of these files depending upon, for example, current file popularity and/or “age”.

FIG. 5 is a block/schematic diagram illustrating how implementation and practice of the present invention can be viewed as an important positive feedback commerce enhancement system and methodology.

FIGS. 6-10, inclusive, viewed along with FIG. 1, provide high-level block/schematic “point-of-view” diagrams picturing, as will shortly be explained, the key steps involved in several different specific ways of characterizing the structure and operational features of the system and methodology of the present invention.

FIGS. 11 and 12 are a block/schematic diagrams which illustrate, in a generalized and overall manner relevant to any realm of affinity interest and its subject matter, financial-transactional practice of the invention based upon a selected offering-representative (entrepreneurially vetted and authorized network communicant) gateway model for promoting commerce using peer-to-peer-type network communication as the financial-transactional commerce communication vehicle.

FIGS. 13-15, inclusive, like previously mentioned FIGS. 6-10, inclusive, provide simplified, high level, “point-of-view”, block/schematic diagrams presenting key steps involved in other ways of visualizing the system and methodology of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Turning attention first of all to FIG. 1, indicated generally and fragmentarily in dash-dot lines at 20 is a wide-area communication network, or network system, such as the Internet, with respect to which the present invention is employed. Network 20, which is only specifically pictured in FIGS. 1 and 2, is to be considered operationally and functionally present in all of the drawing figures. Throughout the descriptive discussion which now follows, financial transactions are representatively discussed principally in the realm of goods and/or services purchases. There are, of course, and as has been pointed out above, many other forms of financial transactions that may take place within an affinity group, and others of these types of transactions are mentioned again on occasion in the below text. The purchases type transactions are presented predominantly, and simply, as transactions representatives.

One illustration of the structure and implementation (methodology) of this invention is shown generally at 22, with this illustration including blocks 24, 26, 28, 30, 32. These blocks are appropriately associated/connected with Internet 20. Dashed-line, double-ended arrows 34, 36, 38, 40 extend between different ones of these blocks, as shown, for reasons which will be explained shortly.

FIG. 1, in general terms, diagrams the basic vetted-peer entrepreneurship concept of the present invention which involves utilizing the extensive and powerful bandwidth of P2P file sharing between peers in an affinity group to promote financial transactional commerce through employing linkage between (a) affinity subject matter associated with such a P2P affinity group, and (b) ancillary, and other, goods and services deliverables, all for the purpose of utilizing the practice of peer-driven file sharing to promote sales of such other deliverables to members of the P2P affinity group.

Block 24 represents such an affinity group, with this block including plural members, such as the three members shown in small, shaded rectangles contained within block 24. Dashed arrow line 34 represents an affinity linkage between the members of group 24 and so-called affinity subject matter which is represented by block 28. An illustration of affinity subject matter which is useful for describing the present invention is electronically deliverable, “copyright sanctioned” music organized into song files. In the particular invention illustration now being given, the music files which make up affinity subject matter 28 are copyrighted music files with respect to which there are associated copyright rights holders who expect compensation for the downloading and delivery of files which become acquired by members in group 24.

According to the invention illustration now being described, members of the affinity-group, affinity-subject-matter right-holders, as well as others who may be offerers of various other kinds of goods and services for sale or paid-for use, have chosen, as sourcing providers, to make certain goods and services available to one or more selected, vetted members of group 24 for sale or other promotion to other members in group 24 in conjunction with P2P file sharing which takes place between members within group 24. Block 30 in FIG. 1 represents an authorized, electronic-data catalogue, or the like, which identifies all such deliverables. Such deliverables, which are represented in the catalogue in the form of electronic data, might include, in addition to goods and services specifically associated with affinity subject matter, various other, ancillary, affinity-subject-matter goods and services which, in the case of music files, might include posters, photographs and various group and artist paraphernalia. In an implementation of the invention which only involves commerce in the field of electronic media, blocks 28, 30 may effectively be visualized as being merged, whereby the “catalogue” of deliverables includes only electronic media. All such subject matter, affinity-interest and ancillary, are, of course, aggregatable in various ways to make up a fulfillable sale, or other kind of financial transaction, as promoted by one or more vetted peer(s).

It should be understood that in the implementation of the invention respecting file sharing, a suitable file-sharing technology, typically in the form of software which may be made available to members of group 24 over the Internet, is indeed made available to those members of group 24 who choose to participate in the system and methodology of the invention, as, for example, by becoming subscribers for an appropriate, modest fee, referred to herein as a “good-standing” fee. This software may be any suitable type of file sharing software, the details of which form no part of the present invention.

In accordance with practice of the invention, at least one peer member of group 24 is appropriately (entrepreneurially) vetted and selected to be given permission to make offers to other members of group 24 of deliverables for sale from the collection (or collections) thereof represented by block 30 (and/or block 28) in the FIG. 1. Preferably, such a selected peer group member is encouraged to utilize his or her own-imagined procedures and entrepreneurial talents for promoting interest in other peer members to “take a look” at offerings from these deliverables, along with presenting further encouragement to such other peers to make one or more purchases, or to engage in some other form of permanent or temporary (such as licensed) transaction. One of the key, powerful features of the invention is that it is thus through peer promotion and enthusiasm that financial-transaction offers of deliverables takes place. One can thus visualize this key as utilizing specific P2P “affinity group culture” as a driving force for commercial sales of, or other financial transactions involving, the deliverables.

When a peer in group 24, who has received an encouragement (only by a vetted peer) to “take a look at the catalogue of deliverables”, takes action, for example, by clicking on an offered deliverable, and thereby sending an electronic signal over the Internet, that action is preferably considered to have created what is referred to herein as a peer hit upon a promoted deliverable. Such a hit is represented by block 26 and dashed arrow line 36 in FIG. 1. Arrow line 36 is thus representative of the transmission of an electronic, over-the-network signal. In any appropriate manner which is well within the skill of those skilled in the art involving the creation of software, etc. associated with peer-to-peer file sharing activities, such a hit is appropriately recorded and preferably made known for ultimate fulfillment. It may be, for example, recorded as digital electronic data to an appropriate memory location, such as might be represented by block 32 in FIG. 1, to establish for the offering peer a “peer hit” account which records hits attributable to the promotional activity of the offering peer. A peer hit may, of course, be as modest as a simple peer click to look and see what is being made available from the catalogue of deliverables, and, of course, as robust as a fully consummated and ultimately fulfilled sale, or, in fact, as a proposed engagement in any one of the several types of financial transactions discussed earlier herein.

Dashed arrow lines 38, 40 in FIG. 1, in a setting where commerce involving both electronic-media and other deliverables is involved, represent, respectively, (a) linkages which are made between available affinity subject matter and other deliverables, as promoted by a peer in group 24, and (b) access by members within group 24 to the offerings of other deliverables represented by block 30.

In any appropriate manner, also well within the skill of those skilled in the art of Internet communication computer technology, and in accordance with a practice that may have been put in place, for example, by an affinity-group manager, as the peer hit account for an offering peer member of group 24 crosses various predetermined performance levels, some form of award or appealing recognition, also represented by block 32, is given to (or is requested by) the associated offering peer, or otherwise made available to that peer.

What one can see from this description, and from the practice illustration presented in FIG. 1, is that a methodology is thus proposed which opens the door to significant promotion for, among other financial transactions, the sales of goods and services associated with, or even ancillary to, affinity subject matter—i.e., that subject matter which defines the area of initial and special interest for the exchange of information between peers in affinity group 24.

By offering this methodology under, for example, an optional group-manager-assisted subscriber system wherein subscriber fees are made appealingly low, and wherein actual transfers of affinity subject matter files may be permitted within the operation of the system for relatively low, or even no, per-file-download payments from a receiving peer, members, and would be members, of an affinity peer group are encouraged to retain good-standing membership statuses in order to have access to relatively low-cost acquisition of affinity subject matter materials free from a threat, in case of copyrighted materials, of the possibility of adverse legal action.

Peer members may also become enthusiastic about the commercial offers made and promoted by others among them, and may be encouraged by the prospect themselves of becoming vetted and authorized, peer-group offering entrepreneurs. Providers of ancillary catalogue deliverables who may pay fees to be “included” in the catalogue of deliverables will most probably experience nearly immediate and very wide-spread and remarkable low-cost promotion of their goods and services, well beyond what they have experienced or been able to support in the past, with resulting business growth driven by peer-culture entrepreneurial enthusiasm.

Rights-holder contributors of material to the supply of affinity subject matter deliverables, such as copyrights holders in electronically distributable music files, are presented with a structure which has the potential, through peer subscription membership growth, for growing their economic return from the expanded and paid-for distribution of such files, and the landscape of copyright combatancy between file sharing members of an affinity group and rights holders should shrink considerably.

FIG. 2, as outlined in its description above, illustrates a slightly modified version of what is shown in FIG. 1, wherein a vetted and “authorized’ catalogue-offering peer 24 a in peer affinity group 24 is also the same person as peer 26 a in a peer affinity group 26 which has interest in a different affinity subject matter. This peer (24 a, 26 a) who is common to groups 24, 26 (also referred to herein collectively as an electronic-network subassembly) thus acts as a gateway, or connector, between the two different P2P affinity groups, which can thus be thought of as being “collected” or “gathered” under the wing of, or at least in operative association with, common system management, or support-bridging by a common, affinity-interest group manager—this gathering gateway being represented in FIG. 2 by double-ended curved arrow 42, and by dashed-line block 44. Catalogues of deliverables associated with such two, different, chosen affinity groups may, of course, have different, group-relevant, as well as group-non-relevant, content, i.e., different affinity-interest and ancillary-subject-matter deliverables. Arrows 42, in the common-support-manager context just mentioned, is relatable to previously mentioned line 38 in FIG. 1.

Such a group plurality of distributed, but readily connectable, (a) peers, (b) associated network hardware, (c) software, (d) databases, and (e) management services, etc., illustrated “elementally” in FIG. 2, helps to make understandable the massive network-cloud commerce-expansion which is made achievable by the present invention.

Turning to FIGS. 3 and 4, these two figures illustrate a particular practice of the present invention in relation to a P2P affinity group which has an affinity interest in music of a particular character, and wherein providers, referred to as industry providers, of such affinity-group music have determined to make music files available in two categories of files, one of which categories contains, say, current high-popularity, hit-list song files, and other of which contains music files which may have “graduated”, for example, from a hit-list category either because of declined popularity, or elevated age.

FIG. 3 illustrates this form of practice of the invention in blocks evenly numbered 46-66, inclusive. Interconnecting activity lines are illustrated in FIG. 3 by solid arrow-headed lines as shown.

In FIG. 3, block 46 represents a population of copyright rights holders (entities) in music song files, and these entities, referred to, as mentioned above, as industry providers, make such files available to an accessible (over the Internet) music file pool represented by block 48. The rights holders for these music files have chosen to characterize them as belonging in one or the other of the two different categories of files identified above. Song files which are the “young”, and/or high-popularity, files follow an activity flow path generally represented by blocks 50, 52, 54 and 56. The other files generally follow a flow path which is represented by blocks 58, 60, 62 and 64.

In accordance with the practice specifically illustrated in FIG. 3, a high-popularity music file, for example, will be treated as something for which a recipient peer will pay on a per-file basis for a file-share download, with this file being otherwise delivered over the Internet only through the temporary-use practice known as streaming so as clearly to identify it as not being obtainable except through payment. According to the FIG. 3 practice of the invention, streamed files are tagged with appropriate markers which effectively “age” these files in relation to their retention in a hit-list category, and when aged beyond a point wherein they should remain in this category, these files are transitioned, in effect, by applying appropriate electronic markers to them which then designate them as copyright sanctioned (i.e., licensed), non-pay-per-file song files. Such a “transition” is represented by the arrow-headed line which interconnects blocks 56, 58 in FIG. 3.

Song files which are either initially designated to be non-pay-per-file files, or which become such following a transition as just described, are made available to affinity group peers under an established premise which defines them as non-pay-per-file files, and which allows them to be distributed, in a non-streaming manner, to subscriber members in good standing of the relevant affinity peer group. File sharing of these files which, in accordance with the practice now being described, are not in the pay-per-file category are made directly available for P2P file sharing within the relevant affinity group.

Relevant feedback information, represented by block 66 in FIG. 3, is provided to the so-called industry providers as an encouragement to continue to grow the contents of song files available in the music pool represented by block 48 in FIG. 3.

FIG. 4, in five blocks 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, further illustrates what has just been described with respect to FIG. 3 in relation to how the two different categories of files mentioned are handled for delivery over the Internet.

Looking now at FIG. 5, six blocks, evenly numbered 78-88, inclusive, illustrate, in a relatively self-explanatory way, how practice of the present invention can be visualized as being a positive feedback commercial methodology in a music-file-based situation based upon growing the file sharing behavior of peer members within a P2P file sharing affinity (music) group. Labeling which is presented in FIG. 5, along with the interconnected blocks in this figure, clearly illustrate how the invention can be viewed as being a commercial positive feedback arrangement. Song files in music file pool 78 which are contributed by copyright rights holders are made available at an appealing cost to members in good standing of a subscriber group of peer-to-peer file sharers, and this attractive pricing for available files incentivizes (block 80) network growth through addition of members (block 82) within the relevant P2P file sharing affinity group. Through employing offers of other deliverables as described with respect to FIG. 1, and in collaboration with file sharing behavior which takes place within the appropriate file sharing affinity group, this activity will generate commercial interest in the purchase of what has been referred to herein as other deliverables, and will incentivize (block 86) song-file rights holder to grow the quantity of media-file information (block 88) made available via music file pool 78.

If one simply thinks carefully about the basic mechanism of this invention as described so far herein, one can readily see how a positive feedback loop, such as that illustrated in FIG. 5, is driven to promote commerce not only in distributable music files but in other deliverables, in a fashion wherein this feedback loop can be considered to possess two important growth engines which are represented, as illustrated, at the opposite sides of FIG. 5.

Turning now to “point-of-view” drawings 6-10, inclusive, FIG. 6, at 89, generally illustrates the invention as a P2P business method which includes the steps of (a) IDENTIFYING (block 90) an active P2P network characterized with peers having a defined affinity interest in the exchange of at least category-A information (which may be music song files), and (b) EMPLOYING (block 92) that at-least category-A information-exchange affinity interest as a carrier vehicle and growth engine for the promotion, within that network, of collateral income-generating transactions between a peer and another peer or a party outside the network. Recalling the discussion given above in relation to FIG. 1 in the drawings, one can readily appreciate this manner of describing the present invention.

FIG. 7, at 93, provides a high-level way of viewing the invention as a P2P business-growth-enhancing method which is relevant to the income-generating transactional delivering of goods and/or services, and which utilizes, as an engine for such enhancement, the practice of P2P file sharing of selected information-material (such as music files) which is associated with possessor-owned relationship rights (e.g., copyright rights), with this method including the steps of (a) OFFERING (block 94) to peers, for rights-conflict-free sharing in a P2P information-sharing network, possessor-rights-sanctioned contents drawn from such material, and (b) by that act of offering, and based upon peer initiated affinity behavior within the P2P network which is stimulated by features associated with the offered content, and in a manner which is independent of the quantity of P2P shared material, PROMOTING (block 96) commercial transactional engagement between a peer in the network and a non-peer commercially who may be associated with the rights-possessors of such sanctioned materials.

The FIG. 8 view of the present invention can be understood as illustrating it, at 97, to be a broadband, distributed, goods/services-promotion system which is based upon (a) ESTABLISHING (block 98) a goods/services-provider sanctioned-for-delivery offering package, (b) DELIVERING (block 100) that package to at least one selected P2P file-sharing participant designated to be a sub-delivery host, (c) INCENTIVIZING (block 102) self-designed sub-delivery by that host to other P2P file sharing participants by crediting that host with a hit account specific to the host, and by offering hit-redemption values to the host, and on the basis of a sub-delivery host's build-up in the associated hit account, (d) FULFILLING (block 104) host-requested award redemptions.

FIG. 9, at 105, illustrates the invention as being a method for enhancing digital music-industry income relative to the distribution of copyrighted music files including the steps of (a) RECOGNIZING (block 106) that P2P network file sharing is a promising engine of economic growth for the industry, (b) DIVIDING (block 108) digital music files effectively into at least two categories including (1) network streamed, non-file-sharable files, and (2) network non-streamed, file-sharable files, and (c) LINKING (block 110) differentiated income-producing fees to two such categories.

FIG. 10, along with previously discussed FIG. 5, illustrates the invention at 111 as taking the form of a positive feedback loop for spurring economic growth in the digital recorded music industry which, from a methodologic point of view, includes the steps of (a) ESTABLISHING (block 112) an industry-contributed, ever-growing body of digital music files, (b) ATTRACTING (block 114) a population of subscribers who, for paid subscriber membership fees, are given access to those files for otherwise free P2P membership-only file sharing, and who, as subscriber members, are identifiably accessible to contributing industry participants for the presentation/reception of various permission-based industry-contributed offerings, (c) ENHANCING (block 116) that action of attracting in order to promote growth in the mentioned subscription population through the practice of industry-characterizing all of such contributed files as copyright-sanctioned files, and (b) UTILIZING (block 118) such promoted subscriber-membership growth as feedback encouragement to incentivize expanded industry participation in the practice of contributing to, and growing the quantity of, files in the body of files.

One will observe that these several ways of viewing the nature of the present invention fit within different ones of the general “models” of the invention pictured in FIGS. 1-5, inclusive.

FIG. 11, in five blocks, 120, 122, 124, 126, 128, and FIG. 12 in two blocks, 130, 132, collectively, and in a generalized manner which is relevant to any affinity-interest group and its associated affinity-interest subject matter, illustrate the present invention from a point of view which is based upon promoting, among other things, affinity-interest-subject-matter, such as electronic-media-subject-matter, financial transactions of various types by introducing authorized (i.e., entrepreneurially vetted), catalogue-offering representative behavior into a P2P network. These two figures illustrate an expression of the invention wherein a central managing server 120, for example under the control of an optional group manager, manages both a digital electronic catalogue 122 of affinity-interest goods and services which may be offered within the practice of a P2P communicant network, as well as the activities of selected peers 124 in an affinity group 126 who have been chosen to be designated as entrepreneurially vetted, authorized representatives for the making of offers for financial transactions, for example sales, relating to goods and services from this catalogue. The central managing server, under appropriate implementation by the optional group manager, may manage, as ancillary transactions support, fulfillment (such as aggregation and delivery) of orders from the catalogue with respect to P2P communicants who respond to vetted-communicant promotional activity by engaging in financial transactions relative to goods and services presented in the catalogue. Central management, and the central managing server, may also (a) variously track, record and manage (block 128) all promotion and response activities which take place between authorized sales representatives and other members of a peer group, (b) assure non-competition protection as between plural sales representatives who operate within the same peer-to-peer affinity group, and (c) build relevant databases regarding promotion and response activities, which databases are then usable to tailor, modify and control the operation of the invention so as to maximize the enhanced commercial activity which takes place in accordance with practice of the invention.

FIG. 12 specifically, and self-explanatorily, illustrates (utilizing specific word labeling) several ways in which non-competition management may be implemented.

FIG. 13, along with FIGS. 11 and 12, illustrates at 133 an authorized-sales-representative method for using the network communication bandwidth of a group of P2P file sharers having an affinity, for example, for electronically distributable media to enhance the sales of such media, with this method including the steps of (a) ESTABLISHING (block 134) a vetted-peer authorized-access-only catalogue containing identification of such media, (b) AUTHORIZING (block 135) at least one selected member of the P2P group to make offers of media sales from the catalogue to other members of the group, and (c) PROVIDING (block 136) a reward to that authorized, selected member in relation to the occurrence of at least one offered and at least partially implemented sale of media from the catalogue. These three figures taken together also illustrate this same method which further involves the presence of an appropriate, but optional, group (or system) manager, and which includes the additional step of encouraging the entrepreneurially vetted and authorized group member selectively to couple with such an offer an independent, approved, non-catalogue offer for sale of subject matter of the authorized member's choosing.

FIG. 14, taken along with FIGS. 11 and 12, promotes a view at 137 of the present invention which is that it takes the form of a method for promoting the sales, or other commercial transfers, of rights-associated electronically distributable electronic media made available by a media-rights authorizing entity, and including the steps of (a) CREATING (block 138) a catalogue including electronic media content the presence of which in the catalogue is supported by media-rights authorizing entities, (b) SELECTING (block 140), to be authorized as a catalogue sales representative at least for the media content, an identified participant in a P2P file-sharing group having an affinity for the catalogue media content, (c) ENABLING (block 142) the selected, authorized participant to offer to other participants in the affinity group media content for purchase, or other acquisition type, from the catalogue employing marketing strategies that are self-developed and cleared with advisories from the authorizing entity, (d) TRACKING (block 144) purchase activities involving such offered media content, and (e) REWARDING (block 146) the selected, authorized participant in relation to implemented sales from the catalogue based upon catalogue-access offers made by that participant.

FIGS. 11, 12 and 14 can also be viewed, for example, as illustrating the invention in the form of being a method for promoting the sales, or other commercial transfers or arrangements, of rights-associated electronically distributable electronic media involving the steps of (a) CREATING (block 138) a central-server-managed catalogue including electronic media content the presence of which in the catalogue is supported by media rights holders, (b) SELECTING (block 140) to be authorized as a central-server-managed catalogue-sales representative, at least for the media content, an identified participant in a P2P file sharing group having an affinity for the catalogue media content, (c) ENABLING (block 142) the selected, authorized participant to offer to other participants in the affinity group media content for purchase, or other useful transference acquisition, from the catalogue, (d) TRACKING (block 144) purchase activities involving such offered media content, and (e) REWARDING (block 146) the selected, authorized participant in relation to implemented sales (or hits) from the catalogue based upon sales offer made by that participant.

FIG. 15, along with FIGS. 11 and 12, can be viewed as illustrating practice of the present invention at 147 as providing a method for enhancing the sales, or other commercialization styles, of electronically distributable media using the network communication bandwidth of a group of P2P file sharers possessing an affinity for such media, including the steps of (a) INTRODUCING (block 148) media-sales-representative behavior into that group with controlled access provided to a catalogue of such media from which offers of media sales can be made to members in the group, and (b) INCENTIVIZING (block 150) such introduced behavior.

Thus, the present invention can clearly be seen to involve proposed computer signal-transmission, network methodology and a system which are based upon a paradigm shift in relation to current thinking about the nature of a P2P file sharing (or other affinity-activity) network structure, as well as about like, various-affinity-interest, network-consumer network structure, particularly as such a network structure is perceived today in the context of commerce involving network-deliverable, affinity subject matter, such as electronic media files, like music song files and movie files, as well as other forms of affinity-interest subject matter. There are many attractive and beneficial commercial and other features which characterize this invention—features which takes square aim at utilizing the extraordinary power and reach of P2P file sharing, and like affinity-interest network-consumer behavior, to promote a very wide range of commercial transactions, thus to grow and enhance various commercial income streams.

In accordance with implementation and practice of the invention, and specifically discussing certain features and advantages of the invention in the representative context of music song file sharing, peers in a music affinity group are enticed to join, and to remain as “good-standing” subscribers with, a service, such as a subscription service, offered, in accordance with practice of one form of the present invention. More specifically, such enticement will be promoted and enhanced (a) by preferably relatively low subscription fees, (b) by preferably relatively low (or in some instances no) pay-per-music-file-download fees, (c) by a blend of (a) and (b), (d) by the opportunity offered to affinity group peers to participate in rights-related media file sharing without fear of copyright infringement actions taking place, (e) by the exposure of peer affinity group members to interesting, peer-driven offers to acquire, in addition to music song files, other and ancillary deliverables, (f) by the possibility for peers in an affinity group to become authorized, and ultimately rewarded, entrepreneurially vetted-member “offerers” within an affinity group, (g) and by other attractions which will certainly come to the minds of those who think about the possibilities offered by the present invention. These enticement and other advantage factors which are associated with the present invention will lead naturally, or should so lead, to significant population growths in relevant affinity-subject-matter groups, which growths will most likely expand the commercial enhancement offered by the invention.

In the affinity world of music media files, music copyright rights holders will be attracted by the potential, and the probable reality, of growing groups of peers whose activities will be non-infringing in relation to copyright rights, and which growing may well lead to a significantly enhanced income stream to such rights holders derived from any one or more of (a) growing, direct, per-file-download payments from subscription-member peers, (b) a received share, perhaps, in “peer membership” subscription fees, and (c) the possibility even of receiving a share in revenues generated by sales, occurring within an affinity group, of various deliverables. Appropriate filters may be associated with rights-controlled media files to protect media rights holders positively against copyright infringement.

Rights holders may well discover that implementation of the present invention may produce revenue streams that clearly out-distance those generated by classical “sales” of media content. In fact, one startling effect might be that the nature of such an enhanced revenue stream could cause media rights holders actually to promote P2P file-sharing group growth—a promotion behavior plainly taggable by conventional thinking as being heretical. A paradigm shift, indeed!

As has been mentioned earlier herein, of central importance to the power for enhancing commerce which is offered by the present invention is the fact that core impetus for growth is driven by authorized and encouraged affinity-interest-group enthusiasm linked with imaginative peer (group member) vetted entrepreneurship. The present invention thus attaches itself in a unique way to the core sprit, enthusiasm and culture which centrally drives the extraordinary growth, and ever-present activities, surrounding bulging network commerce.

Practice of the invention, as will be readily recognized by those skilled in the electronic network arts, intimately links with and utilizes otherwise conventional and well known electronic-signaling, computer-network hardware machinery (client computers, and servers), physical electronic databases, firmware and software which are required for its practice. The term “electronic” herein takes on it usual broad meaning in the relevant arts, involving electrical, electrostatic, magnet, and optical devices and signaling, data-storing and related matters and practices. It thus encompasses the usual electronic signal transformation which occurs when, for examples, text, imagery, and other information which represent electronic and physical objects become transformed into electronic signals that flow in a network to enable the communication and storage of information regarding real world objects.

A good expression of the nature of the invention flows in the language describing it as an electronic, vetted-entrepreneurship-enhancement commerce (financial-transaction) method implementable by common-affinity-interest network-communicant parties employing the structure of an electronic communication network, in association with a network-connected, limited-access, and specifically an entrepreneurially-vetted-network-communicant authorized-access-only, digital-data catalogue of commercially-transactable affinity-interest-associated goods-and-services deliverables that are represented by electronically transformed data stored in the catalogue.

The invented method includes (1), in relation to intended catalogue-financial-transactional-access limiting, specifically basing financial transactional access to catalogue deliverables focusedly on vetted-network-communicant, financial-transactional-promotional entrepreneurship, and (2) limiting financial-transactional-activity access to the catalogue to (a) only an entrepreneurially vetted, entrepreneurially-talented network-communicant party, and (b) another party to whom such access is furnished specifically, and only, by such a vetted party.

Enhanced network commerce includes all of the various forms of financial transactional activities mentioned above herein, as well as others, not specifically mentioned, that may be generated involving affinity-group members.

Those skilled in the art will certainly appreciate all of the opportunities and advantages that are offered by the present invention, and may well perceive other features and advantages which come well within the scope of the present invention, but which may not have been specifically expressed in this disclosure text and in the drawings accompanying this text. All such additional features and advantages are considered, of course, to come within the scope of the present invention as claimed hereinbelow. 

We claim:
 1. A network, affinity-interest-group method, optionally step-effected by an optional within-group manager, for enhancing, in the employment of an electronic communication network, affinity-interest-group network commerce in the form of within-group-implemented financial transactions, said method comprising creating, in relation to a selected affinity-interest group formed of network communicant members having a common subject-matter affinity interest, and including, optionally, a within-group manager member, a network-accessible, but limited-access, electronic catalogue containing electronic representations of affinity-interest goods-and-services deliverables that are associated with the group members' common affinity interest, such deliverables, in the practice of the method, being selectively subject to various forms of financial transactions involving affinity-group members, access to the created catalogue occurring only through the promotional activity of an entrepreneurially vetted affinity-group member, establishing, for the purpose of creating an only-access route to the catalogue, at least one network-communicant affinity-group member, drawn from any of the group members, characterized by possessing financial-transactional-promotional entrepreneurship talent of a nature associated with promoting financial-transactional interest regarding the catalogue-contained deliverables, to become recognized as an at least one authorized, entrepreneurially-vetted, affinity-group network-communicant member/party to have control over financial-transactional access to deliverables contained in the created catalogue, and limiting financial transactional access to deliverables in the catalogue to only (a) such an at least one entrepreneurially-talented, vetted, network-communicant party, and (b) another network-communicant-party in the group having a potential financial-transactional interest in a catalogue-contained deliverable, and solely for the purpose of such other party's considering, and if desired engaging in, a vetted-communicant-promoted financial transaction regarding a catalog-contained deliverable.
 2. An electronic, vetted-entrepreneurship-enhancement commerce method implementable by common-affinity-interest network-communicant parties in, and employing the structure of, an electronic communication network, in operative association with an established, network-connected, financial-transactional-limited-access, and specifically entrepreneurially-vetted-network-communicant authorized-access-only, digital-data catalogue of commercially-transactable affinity-interest-associated deliverables, including goods and services, represented by electronically transformed data stored in the catalogue, said method comprising in relation to intended catalogue-financial-transactional-access limiting, specifically basing financial transactional access to deliverables contained in the established catalogue focusedly on vetted-network-communicant financial-transactional-promotional entrepreneurship, and limiting financial-transactional-activity access to the catalogue to (a) only an entrepreneurially vetted, entrepreneurially-talented network-communicant party, and (b) another party to whom such access is furnished specifically, and only, by such a vetted party. 